I just had Paul and his family out here in the PNW for my nephew’s graduation from UW-Bothell.  I spent last weekend up in the Seattle area to celebrate Travis’s accomplishment and to hang with some of the Rhodes side of my family.  It was nice to see everyone and to also get out on a mountain bike ride with Paul (being a twin is convenient for sharing bikes).  I let Paul try out the fat bike…..trying to convince him of the N+1 theory.

It was also wicked nice to see Khrystine and Payden too.  I have not seen them in far too long and Payden is like three times the size of the last time I saw him.

Then with just a short work week separating Mia and I from the weekend we headed over to Bend, OR for some additional family time with Mia’s side.  Her cousin Kristi, her family, and some of their San Francisco friends all made the pilgrimage to check out the scene.  They had three families (6 adults and 6 kids) all in a rental in Old Town while Mia and I were over on the east side off Revere.  It was great to see them again because I have not seen them in about four years since our trip down to the redwoods.

Instead of everyone trying to accommodate each other’s schedules we all kind of did our own thing on Saturday with plans to meet up for dinner.  Mia and I headed up to Canyon Creek Meadows and out towards Three Fingered Jack for quite the spectacular hike.

Now I’ve hiked A LOT in my life.  I’ve done some really fantastic stuff in both New England and out here in the PNW.  I will say that this hike has got to be slotted into my top 5 for favorites at this point.  There was something about it that just spoke to both Mia and I.  It was only 7 miles total and didn’t have a ton of elevation but it had an incredible mix of views, streams, snow, burnt forest and it wasn’t crazy busy either.  I’d like to explore more of this area for sure.  It took me six years to finally hit up a hike in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness.

Again….FANTASTIC hike!

For Sunday it was more of the same for all the families in Bend.  Do your own thing and we’d all meet up late afternoon for some hanging out and food.  I stumbled upon this website while searching for some rides around there. We ended up riding the West Side Tour and it was super fun.  It helped me connect some dots in and around Bend.  I’ve been to quite a few parts of the area but to finally get them all connected in a loop format……Great job from the people at Dirty Freehub.

After our ride Codi and I walked around town while Mia went shopping with Kristi and Jen.  We then hit up a quick dinner at Barrios and an aggressive game of air hockey before heading back to hang out, have some pie and unfortunately say goodbye to the California crew.

Alas the weekend ended way too soon and now we are home again (which is nice) and prepping to go back to work tomorrow (which is not nice).  Kristi & Howie seemed to be leaning towards making this an annual trip.  We are totally down with that!  There is just so much to explore down there.

Thanks for reading, All the photos here.

-Pete